A conference call reservation represents a promise by the conference call service provider to make a specific number of conference bridge ports available at a certain time and date for a specific amount of time. Conference call bridge capacity is not unlimited, however, and demand for it can be very uneven. For example, many more people are likely to want to call at 10:00 A.M. Monday than at 4:00 A.M. Sunday. To ensure that bridge capacity will be available, conference call service companies usually require that the conference call organizer or host make a reservation. This reservation is typically stored as a record in a database and includes date, time, number of conference bridge ports, and duration, along with such other information as account number and access codes.
Reservations are normally made on a first-come first-served basis. If a conference bridge has only 100 ports available and someone makes a reservation for 90 ports for one hour at 10:00 A.M. Monday, the next person seeking to make a reservation will not be able to reserve 50 ports for the same period of time. Some conference call service providers overbook their bridges, so they may allow, for example, a total of 110 ports to be reserved on a 100 port bridge because they expect the conferences to use fewer ports than have been reserved. If, in fact, more ports are needed than physically available, then the conference call company fails to live up to its promise. Customers can be unhappy in this instance and may seek to be compensated.